La Fayette’s handwriting was more legible in English than in French. His characters were small and well formed. Though he never made rough copies, his letters rarely presented erasures. A writer says of the value of his letters:—
“It is almost superfluous to say how La Fayette’s letters were received by those to whom they were addressed. It was enough to present them to meet with unlimited support, protection, and devotedness. The name of the writer was a species of talisman which opened every door; and it might have been said that to such as received his letters, a spark was communicated from his soul, and a desire to imitate his virtues. Some years ago one of my friends, who was abroad, showed a letter from La Fayette to a distinguished personage entrusted with the confidence of an absolute sovereign. At sight of the letter, the powerful functionary seemed electrified, rose from his seat in token of respect, and entreated my friend as a special favor to give him a fragment of the precious correspondence.”
La Fayette always gave precedence to his duty rather than his personal interests. To the Bailli de Ploën he wrote: “So many stupid remarks have been uttered by party spirit, that it may not be out of place here to assert that no private affection has ever diverted me from my public duty. In the course of three years of power I encouraged none to speak well of me; I prevented none from speaking ill; and to explain my conduct with regard to the notorious characters of the Revolution, it will be sufficient to verify their writings, speeches, and actions at the same period.”
Regarding his own ideas of liberty and equality, he wrote to the same friend: “For my part, as I feel persuaded that the human race was created to enjoy freedom, and as I have been born to promote the cause of liberty, I neither can nor will shrink from the participation which it has been my fate to take in this great event; wherever I have been able, and especially in my own country, I concurred on principle in all the enterprises undertaken against an illegitimate power which it was necessary to destroy, and I now declare to you that in 1787 and 1788 the resistance of the privileged classes—of the leaders of the aristocracy—had as much of the true character of faction as any other insurrection that I have since witnessed.”
La Fayette could never be persuaded to use violent measures in upholding even a good cause when such an expedient was not absolutely necessary. At one time during the Revolution, Mirabeau having recommended some very violent plans to La Fayette, urging that they were excusable for the execution of certain projects, La Fayette indignantly exclaimed, “M. de Mirabeau, it is impossible for an honest man to employ such means.”
“An honest man!” replied Mirabeau. “Ah! M. de La Fayette, it seems you wish to be a Grandison Cromwell: you will see to what that amalgamation will lead you.”
Wherever the voice of duty called La Fayette, no danger could make him flinch, no fear of insult could deter. During the days of October, 1789, when the palace of Versailles was filled with the raging, bloodthirsty mob, La Fayette hastened to an apartment where the crowd was the thickest, and calmly entered, and crossed the Salon without attendants. “There goes Cromwell!” cried one. Turning to the speaker, La Fayette replied with dignity, “Cromwell would not have entered here ALONE!” Notwithstanding the difference of opinion between La Fayette and Napoleon, whenever it appeared to La Fayette that his services could be of use to the best interests of his country, he was ever ready to sacrifice all personal feeling. Before the battle of Marengo, La Fayette addressed a letter to a friend, instructing him to deliver the communication to Napoleon, in case the battle of Marengo should be lost. In this letter La Fayette offered his services to Bonaparte, in defence of the independence of France. As the battle was won, the epistle was not delivered; but Napoleon was informed of the step which La Fayette contemplated taking in case of defeat. One day, while surrounded by his staff of officers, Bonaparte expressed his admiration of the patriotism of the man with whom he differed in opinion, and added, “Which of you, gentlemen, could have done better?”
La Fayette always recollected with pride and with pleasure the services rendered to France by the National Guard, and he thus wrote of them:—
“The Revolution had armed France; it was urgent to bestow on her an organization, and to that end the observations which I had made in America and in several parts of Europe were directed. The National Guard was instituted; this was the sole armed force which could maintain internal order without favoring military despotism, and by means of which foreign aggression could be repelled, whilst the ancient governments were reduced to the inability of defending themselves against us, unless they imitated us; or against their subjects, if they ventured to follow our example.”
La Fayette was a warm advocate in favor of educating the masses; he often said, “that a good education, physical, moral, and intellectual, was in his opinion the best inheritance that parents could transmit to their children; and he considered it to be their duty to make every sacrifice to insure to their offspring this imperishable advantage, which could not but in time prove conducive to their happiness and that of others.” He expressed to his physician his astonishment that in colleges young people were forced to study the course of different rivers in India or Mexico, whilst no pains were taken to impart to them a knowledge of themselves, by giving them some notions of their own organizations and the exercise of their functions. He was desirous that great pains should be taken with the moral and political education of the people, thus insuring their being well-informed and good citizens. He contended that education was calculated to purify the manners of a nation, and contribute to its happiness. And in proof of his own opinions, La Fayette himself might well have been cited as a type of a perfectly civilized being, whom civilization has improved instead of deteriorating; for he had avoided all its vices, and followed only with undeviating step the path traced by virtue and true liberty. He declared that every member of a well-constituted society should receive an education that might point out to him the path which he ought to pursue between his duties and his rights; and that such an education would prove much more effectual for the prevention than the law was for the repression of disorder.